Owner Files Permit for Hilton Garden Inn

The owner of 2.8 acres of vacant land at 7955 Market Plaza Drive in Cordova has filed a $5 million permit to build a Hilton Garden Inn.

Globus Partners filed the application with the city-county Office of Construction Code Enforcement to bring a five-story, 124-room hotel to the property.

The parcel sits on the south side of Market Plaza Drive, just west of North Germantown Parkway and behind the Countrywood Crossing shopping center, along the road that runs between Kohl’s and Kirkland’s Home.

No architect or contractor was listed on the permit.

The land is in the Galleria of Memphis Planned Development second amendment outline and has an appraised value of $950,000, according to the Shelby County Assessor of Property.

Magna Bank Records $1.5 Million Second-Quarter Profit

Magna Bank recorded a profit of $1.55 million for the second quarter, up from a little less than $1 million during the same period in 2012.

The bank’s year-to-date profit through the second quarter was $2.9 million, up from $1.6 million one year ago.

In a letter to shareholders, the bank also reported that yields on loan and investment portfolios “are under pressure as maturing assets are renewed at lower rates and new assets are priced at lower yields.”

– Andy Meek

Greater Memphis Chamber Hosts Breakfast With Business Leaders

The Greater Memphis Chamber’s Small Business Council breakfast Thursday, Aug. 8, will feature two successful business executives who will talk about their experiences and answer audience questions.

The two executives who’ll be speaking are Ben Bryant Jr., executive-in-residence at the FedEx Institute of Technology, and Spence Wilson, Jr., vice president with Kemmons Wilson Inc.

– Andy Meek

Mahaffey Recognized Among Fastest-Growing Urban Firms

Mahaffey Fabric Structures has been recognized as one of the 100 fastest-growing urban businesses in America.

The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City – a nonprofit research and strategy organization focused on U.S. inner city economies and the businesses that succeed there – placed Mahaffey at 85 on its list of the 100 fastest-growing companies in the inner city.

To qualify for the list, which was published in Fortune Magazine, companies were required to have at least 51 percent of their operations located in an economically distressed urban area, have at least 10 full-time employees and produce revenue that met certain growth targets.

Mahaffey, located on Delp Street, is a leading provider of portable structures, and produces weddings, corporate events, fairs, sporting events, festivals and more.

The company was No. 91 on the list of fastest-growing urban companies last year. In 2009 and 2011, Mahaffey made the Inc. 5000 list of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies.

– Amos Maki

Commission Delays Action on Spring Creek Ranch

The Shelby County Commission on Monday, Aug. 5, delayed voting for a month on a resort addition to the Spring Creek Ranch development at Collierville-Arlington and Raleigh LaGrange roads.

And developers of the First Citizens National Bank mixed-use commercial space at Austin Peay Highway and Millington-Arlington Road withdrew their proposal from consideration. The development was for what is now a vacant lot at the corner. The commission was preparing to send the plan back to the Land Use Control Board, which had approved the project when the developer announced he was pulling the item.

– Bill Dries

Prodigi Arts Unveils New Website, Message

Memphis-based creative production agency Prodigi Arts has a new logo, website, staff and central message.

The business is expanding its digital repertoire to include photo manipulation, live-action animation and stop-motion. It was founded in 2008 with a goal of bringing the animation industry to Memphis.

Recent additions to the team have included graduates of the Memphis College of Art and the Savannah College of Art and Design. They have backgrounds and skills in animation as well as in illustration, photography and painting, adding to the new digital services that Prodigi Arts will begin offering to its clients.

Prodigi Arts also has a redesigned website that displays news, blog entries and past projects in a more visually appealing layout that is easier for users to navigate.

– Andy Meek

GM to Invest Millions More at Tennessee Factory

General Motors plans to spend another $167 million at its Tennessee factory so it can build two new midsize vehicles.

The investment disclosed Tuesday is on top of a previously announced $183 million investment. The spending is expected to create or keep 1,800 jobs, but GM wouldn’t say how many new people would be hired.

The company also wouldn’t identify the new vehicles. They could be new versions of the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain crossover SUVs.

The assembly plant in Spring Hill, about 30 miles south of Nashville, now makes the Equinox, as does a factory in Canada. Although they’re selling well, they were last reworked in 2009. They compete against newer vehicles like the Honda CR-V, Ford Escape and Toyota RAV-4.

The assembly plant was idled amid the economic downturn in 2009. But production was restarted following a 2011 contract agreement with the United Auto Workers that included salary concessions for entry-level workers.

The Spring Hill plant produced more than 3.7 million Saturns between 1990 and 2007. Most of the facility’s workers were then furloughed while the plant underwent a $600 million overhaul to build the build the Traverse crossover.

– The Associated Press

US Job Openings Rise, Hiring Falls in June

U.S. employers in June advertised the most jobs in five years but hired fewer workers, a mixed sign for the recovering job market.

The Labor Department said Tuesday that job openings rose 29,000 in June from May to 3.94 million. That’s the most since May 2008.

Total hiring, however, declined 289,000 to 4.2 million. That’s down from a year earlier and the biggest one-month drop in hiring since June 2010. The job market is improving, largely because layoffs have fallen to prerecession levels.